Why the ending nearly ruined this film... (spoilers)
I know this subject has been brought up before. Some people (including Roald Dahl) consider the ending of the movie an abomination to the original story while others actually prefer the changes they made to the original ending of the book.
For those who´ve never read the book: it basically ends with the main character (named Luke in the film) reflecting with his grandmother how being a mouse will affect the rest of his life. They decide to travel around the world, hunting down all the remaining witches to save the lives of other kids. He also realises that he won’t have the average human lifespan, but doesn’t seem to mind since he can live out the rest of his days with his grandmother. That scene is left pretty much intact in the movie. The big difference is that the movie has an extra plot twist after this scene in which the last surviving witch from the hotel decides to renounce her evil ways and turn Luke back to normal using her magical powers (she even materializes his lost glasses).
There are two reasons why I always hated the ending of the film, even as a kid: It makes no sense story wise and it completely obliterates the message Roald Dahl was trying to communicate. I guess the writer/director/producer felt the movie was already dark enough and wanted a more uplifting ending to balance it out. But to make such an enormous change, you need to know how it affects the rest of the story. The rest of the film is still pretty faithful to the original story, which is why the ending just doesn’t fit.
-Why the ending makes no sense: if the witches can turn people back to normal through magic, why did they need a potion to turn them into mice in the first place? And why did this one witch have a sudden change of heart? Is it all just because she wasn’t allowed to join the other witches at the dinner table? Aren’t witches supposed to be demonic creatures who bear a natural grudge against children? They can’t even stand their smell! Being snubbed from a dinner doesn’t seem like the most obvious reason to renounce evil if that’s your natural state. Before writing such an ending, you should make a lot more changes to the story. Give the good witch more character development to make her decisions more believable, and change the whole nature of the witches…
-The most important reason why the ending doesn’t work has to do with the message of the book: the book ends with the boy coming to terms with an unfortunate incident in his life. He knows he his life will never be the same, but at least he can still be happy and at least he can save other children from a similar fate. That’s a very powerful message of hope to end a children’s story with. It’s the reason why I maintain it’s not a sad ending, it’s actually more bittersweet.
There’s nothing wrong with ultra-happy endings, everyone wants to see something more uplifting in his life. But what’s the point of ending every single child’s story with “and they lived happily ever after”? That’s what Disney movies are for. Just think of all the kids who ARE unfortunate in this world: children with a handicap or children who are terminally ill... They know perfectly well that they won’t be visited by some fairy godmother who takes away all their worries. That’s why we need writers like Roald Dahl. His books always have a cynical edge, but they also have a lot of heart. Roald knew exactly what appealed to children, but he never talked down to them. He understood children on a whole different level than most filmmakers nowadays.
Bottom line: I’m fine with an adaptation that deviates from the source material, but you also need to realize the meaning of the changes you make. This ending nearly ruined the movie for me and took away some of the uniqueness of the original story. Perhaps some people prefer a more 'satisfying' ending. But satisfying is not what I was looking for when I read Roald Dahl as a kid. I liked him because he could take me to places I'd never been to.